Miss Annie Waters, The Shaws, Lea Bailey

[sophiewilliams]

Hello 

I wonder if anyone remembers Annie Waters of Lea Bailey please?  She died in 1954 in Ross so appreciate a long time ago.  Her brother, David, was in Ross Public Assistance Institution for a reason we don't know and his wife, Alice, has taken to the grave.  Alice was my great grandmother and was living on her own in Ross while he went from one institution to another....  This is my last ditch attempt to find out why he was kicked out by Alice.  Annie was named as his next of kin on institution admission records for him, not Alice his wife 

Thanks in anticipation

Sophie

[KGarrad]

Ross Poor Law Institution was formerly the Ross Workhouse
See: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ross/

HOWEVER:
Very few records survive
Those that do will be at Herefordshire Record Office, and may be subject to a 100 year closure period.

[rosie99]

Do you have David's death certificate 

[sophiewilliams]

Thank you.  They don't have any surviving for Ross apparently or Ledbury, Bromyard or Leominster.  I found out the admission record for him in Bromyard from the Bromyard History Society and found out then about the next of kin issue.  I found him to be at Ross institution on the 1939 register with Alice working at the institution launderette!!! Presumably so she could keep an eye on him, ha ha!.  I've got loads of records for him, ie birth, marriage, census etc but not why he was in institutions.  The only way I'll get that is through word of mouth which is a problem when it was so long ago.  He died in 1964 in Leominster Old Priory Hospital.

[sophiewilliams]

Hi Rosie

 Yes he died of pancreatic cancer in 1964 in Leominster Old Priory Hospital.  I know which plot he's in at Leominster but there's not even a headstone 

[rosie99]

Why do you think he was 'kicked out' by Alice, she did not appear to have a home of her own. These institutions catered for people who needed 'care'  of some description be it physical or mental.  I can't think of any reason why he would have been institutionalised  for over 25 years other than 'health' issues

[sophiewilliams]

Hi Rosie

Alice lived on her own in a council house for a good many years. She lived eventually then with my grandmother and mum who came to live with her when my grandmother found herself pregnant (another story!).  She was fit and well and there was no reason why she couldn't look after him....hence why nobody knows why he was in the institutions.

🤔

[rosie99]

If he was 'mentally ill'  she probably had no choice as to whether he stayed at home or went into an institution.  Health care was not the same as it is now, people with illnesses such as dementia and post natal depression could end up in these places as society did not know what else to do with them. 

We can only speculate why he was there and hopefully someone can come up with an answer as to whether his health records would be available anywhere.

[sophiewilliams]

Thanks Rosie for the information that has clarified things a bit for me.

I do also know that only one of his step daughter's visited him.  His biological daughter didn't and neither did his granddaughter, my mum.  He died when my mum was 18 and she never knew of his existence or set eyes on him.

The stepdaughter who did visit him remembers he did the garden for the one institution so, from that, we can deduce that he wasn't physically incapacitated.